


"Nightmares suck." local man with an impossible headset-hat combo says, while hugging husband with silly earmuffs

by CoffeeInAPan



Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Genre: "Why does my coffee taste weird?" asks author after pouring 4 shots of vodka into their coffee, Angst? Angst. or not I have no idea how to write angst, Because I'm a sucker for happy endings, Blood and Injury, Character Death, Crying, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Gore? maybe?? depends on what classifies as "gore", Happy Ending, How Do I Tag, I Was Drunk When I Wrote This, I Will Go Down With This Ship, M/M, Nightmares, Sharing a Bed, Sleepy Cuddles, Swearing, but it's only in a dream, no beta read we die like poor Wilson Stone, secret husbands!!, they're husbands!!, violence?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:48:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27459733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoffeeInAPan/pseuds/CoffeeInAPan
Summary: Burt has a nightmare, cries, wakes up his husband Matteus after calming down, they cuddle, Burt cries again, Matteus gets worried, they cuddle more and go back to sleep. That's it. That's the whole plot. And yes they're married. Secretely, of course.
Relationships: Burt Curtis/Matteus Guardsmith
Comments: 7
Kudos: 18





	"Nightmares suck." local man with an impossible headset-hat combo says, while hugging husband with silly earmuffs

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone. It is my first work I'm publishing, AND plan on keeping published. And first ever story here, and in this fandom. Also, english is my second language, so sorry if it's a bit wonky.
> 
> I was introduced to this ship by an amazing artist on Instagram, named t455audra. Y'all should check them out, they're great. And if they ever read it, well, I only said I’d never Punch him.
> 
> I don't even have a story, just an aesthetic in my mind, a lot of vodka in my system and confidence thanks to said vodka. Also, if you find the really obvius references to another game in this garbage I will love you forever.
> 
> Btw, how the fuck does one post here?

When someone on a clan meeting said that they could raid prisons to get more clan members in big numbers to solve the problem of the Government capturing more and more members, Burt never would've thought Henry would like the idea. But he did. Oh, how much that crazy son of a bitch liked the idea. The moment he heard it, his face morphed into a huge creepy smile, and he franticly started signing so fast, Burt had a hard time understanding and translating what their leader was "saying". But Burt never would've imagined that the first prison they'd raid would be the fucking Wall.

**"It is filled with the most dangerous people. They'd make excellent recruits! We could rescue the clan members who are there, too. Also, The Wall is a great danger too, if we cripple them by killing as many as possible, that would give us enough time to deal with the Government too."** Henry signed, when Burt dared to question why The Wall first.

It made some sense, but Burt hated this idea, because it was The Wall. The same fucking Wall where Matteus works. The same Wall, where his HUSBAND is working!! If they raid The Wall with one of the intentions being "kill as many guards as you can", then the love of his life is in grave danger! He needs to call him to tell him! Tell him what? Go to his mother the day before the Toppats arrive? Matteus would never abandon his comrades!! What should he do??!!

After the meeting ends, Burt immedietly locks himself in his room. He doesn't know how to phrase what he needs to tell his husband, but he knows he has to inform him about the coming carnage. He sits down on his bed, his leg bouncing and fingers tapping on his knees as he waits for Matteus to pick up. At the first try he doesn't. That's okay, maybe he's busy, or in the bathroom. So Burt tries again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. The first eight tries he doesn't pick up, and Burt isn't sitting anymore on the bed, but walking up and down in his room. It's okay, Matteus is just busy. Being a prison guard means you are very busy. Or he might be playing card games with that friend of his, and doesn't notice his phone's buzzing! That must be the answer!! But he'll answer soon, right?

Three hours of trying and failing to contact his husband, Burt's whole body is shaking, and he feels cold. He chewed his fingernails so much his hand is bleeding, and his hair is a mess from how many times he pulled on it to release some of his anxiety. Whith trembling hands he takes off his hat and headphones and stumbles into his bathroom to wash his face. He needs to calm down, it won't do any good if he's panicking. He has to clear his head. He can’t go for a walk as he’s too nervous that if someone sees how agitated he is they’ll be suspicious of him. He can’t really go outside for fresh air in space, and this reused air is not the best to help him clear his head either.

But the air situation soon will be solved, Henry always signs, as soon as the clan member named Julie can figure out, with her assistant scientist, how to make plants, mostly trees, that can grow and make air without the need for sunlight, proper soil, or too much water and create an artificial forest up here.

So his only option was to take a cold shower, which at first sounded like a good idea, but as soon as the icy water touches his skin, his shaking intesifies and he has to slam his hand over his mouth to stop himself from screaming out loud. It’s too cold. He’s too cold. Everything is too cold. He needs Matteus, more than ever. But he can’t leave the station. Why can’t he? Burt doesn’t remember, he just knows he can’t leave the station and go to The Wall.

Or maybe he can? Yeah, he can, but he’d have to act quick once he’s there.

To say Henry was suprised, when Burt presented his wish to join the coming raid of The Wall would be an understatement. The leader’s usual cold stare widens, a puzzled look on his face

"There’s a security guard I have unfinished business with, and I’d like to deal with it." Burt explains before Henry could ask why, and that seems to satisfy his curiosity.

 **”Very well, you may come with us.”** the madman finally signed, his signature dangerous smile returning to his face, making Burt shiver even more. Stupid cold, and stupid creepy bastard of a leader.

This might’ve been a bad idea, but before Burt could really think about it, he and the others were already ont he airship on their way to The Wall. He is with Sven, as the swedish blond is the one, who Burt considers his closest friend. Even if their friendship mostly stands of Sven ranting about his problems, and Burt listening to him, and offering emotional support in the form of awkward shoulder pats. Sven apreciates them though, no matter how awkward they are.

”We’re almost there, any sign of of them noticing us?” Ellie, Henry’s right hand lady asks. Burt didn’t even notice she was here. When did she come here?

”Negative, ma’am.” he starts, looking at the monitors in front of him, and suddenly one of them starts flashing red. ”Hold on, sensors are picking up something approaching fast.”

”Enemy missiles?!”

”Bigger.”

”Can we evade it?!”

”No, it is coming too fast!”

”EVERYONE BRACE FOR IMPACT!” Ellie screams into her communicator, just before something green flies into them, making the airship crash into none onther, but their destination, The Wall.

There’s confusion, panick and screams for medical help over the blaring alarms of both the toppat airship and The Wall. Burt’s head is throbbing, he can feel blood dripping from his nose, which is definetly broken, considering he hit the desk in front of him when they landed. To his left, Sven lays ont he ground, his head bleeding badly. Burt isn’t sure if he’s unconscious or dead, but he hopes it isn’t the latter one. To his right, Henry helps up Ellie, and behind them is the reason the airship fell.

A Government helicopter. And from it exists a man clad in green, eyes open wide, even if blood is flowing into the left eye steadily, a manic snarl on his face, and a red headset on his head. Burt is sure he knows who this person is, the name just doesn’t come to his mind.

The madman screams something at their leader and both him, Ellie and Henry start shooting at eachother, creating even more chaos. Burt pulls Sven’s body under the desk, and shields him with the chairs as much as he can. If he’s still alive, he’ll be safer there, than ont he open, where a stray bullet can hit him, or where he could get trampled over. Burt tears off one of Sves’s sleeves to act as a makeshift bandage, and he wraps the giant injury on the other man’s head as best as he could. He’s not a medic, goddamn it.

He grabs his own gun, and after firing a few bullets at the nameless lunatic, he springs out from where he was ducking behind the chairs and runs. Well to say he’s running would be generous, more like stumbling, while fighting the growing urge to vomit and the pain in his body. But he won’t stop, not until he reaches Matteus. If he stops now, he won’t have the strenght to continue again.

He’s out of the burning remains of the airship, and the cold air feels like a punch to his lungs, and the heavy snowfall slows him down even more. He can’t stop. When he knows Matteus is safe, then he can stop. At least that was his plan, but his body has other plans as he lurches sideways and empties his stomach’s content into the snow. Suprisingly there’s no bad aftertaste. But that might be because he lost his tase when he almost had his skull crack open like fifteen minutes ago.

There’s more shouting and shooting outside, guards and toppats fighting, and there seems to be green clad soldiers too, but they might just be Burt’s imagination as he staggers further away from the airship, where Ellie and Henry are still fighting that son of a bitch pilot.

Someone is screaming his name, and when he turns, he is instantly wrapped in a crushing hug. Burt can tell it’s his husband, who’s hugging him from the sweater he’s wearing. But it feels wrong. Too cold.

”What is happening??!!” Matteus is confused, as expected by someone, who had a bright red airship be dropped on their head. ”You’re bleeding!!” he exclaims, getting more and more agitated.

”I’ll explain everything, love, but first we need to get out of here.” Burt grabs his hand and starts pulling as best as he can. Which isn’t much, but Matteus starts following, quickly taking the lead and pulling the two of them. There’s chaos, smoke, blood and bodies everywhere, everyone fighting with everyone, and the flames are getting higher and higher.

”Can you run?!! We need to run!”

”Hold… Hold on, just give me a second…” Burt huffs as his head is still throbbing and the need to puke starts returning, and his vision is getting blurry. He’s gonna pass out.

”We don’t have a second–!”

Both of them heard the gunshot, that seems louder than the others, and they turn at the same time, and the world slows down for the Toppat member. He can see not that far from them a prisoner standing on top of the body of a Government soldier, holding said soldier’s gun. The bullet moves slow, and Burt feels like it’s mocking him, as it comes in contact not with him, but the lanky prison guard standing next to him, colliding with his neck. Another prisoner shoots at Matteus too, and that bullet too collides with his body, this time his chest.

For a few agonizingly slow seconds Matteus next to him is still as a statue, then like a fountain, bright red blood starts spilling from the hole in his neck, and the front of his uniform already has a growing red patch on it. And just as the blood starts bubbling out of the wounds, the guard’s knees buckle and he’s falling slowly.

Burt lunges forward, and catches his husband, gently bringing him down to the ground, so he won’t hurt himself. One of his hands lets go of Matteus, grabbing the gun he just dropped, and as his vision clears he shoots towards the two prisoners. The shots miss, or so do the prisoners think, but it isn’t them, that are Burt’s target, but the red containers just behind them. They explode, burning the two bastards, their charred bodies flying into two different directions.

One of them makes contact head first with a wall not that far away, with a sickening crack, and the other is impaled onto a metal pole. Burt shields Matteus from the debris, his gun already dropped again, so while one of his hands cradles the much taller man, the other can caress his face. Everything seems to vanish out of existence, it’s only the two of them in the snowstorm.

”Love?” he whispers, and Matteus cracks open one of his eyes, his mouth opens to answer, but only a wheezing sound and blood comes out of it. ”It’s okay, don’t talk…” Burt kisses his forehead just below his hairline, his hand that was caressing his husband’s paling face is now pressing against the bullet wound on his chest, while Matteus’s trembling right hand presses onto the wound on his neck. It has clearly hit one of his carotid arteries, and the other definetly punctured the left side of his lungs.

”You’ll be alright, my love…” they both know it’s a lie ”just save your strenght…” Matteus wheezes again, this time it sounds like a chuckle, and he shakes his head, his clean hand coming up to stroke Burt’s face gently, wiping away tears the Toppat never noticed were flowing down his face and dripping onto his beloved’s cheeks. Matteus gives him a small smile, his lips are trembling and there are tears in his eyes too. And Burt doesn’t dare to look away from those quickly dimming eyes.

The silence is broken by a blood curdling, devastating scream that makes Burt flinch, and despite his own better judgement, look up towards the source of the sound. He wishes he didn’t. Just a meter away from them stands Matteus’s mother, her soft eyes wide and filled with horror, tears streaming down her face, making her much more older than she is.

”My son! My baby…” she starts shrieking again, sobbing uncontrollably. Burt can’t bear to look at her, and he casts his eyes back down.

Matteus isn’t in his arms anymore. All that is left is just his signature earmuffs and his ring, their wedding ring. Both bloody and dirty. Where did Matteus go?! Where did his body disappear?! Burt in his anguish cries out to his husband, calling him back. And that is when the screaming next to him stops.

”You! You still dare to call my son!” his moter-in-law shrieks, her hair in a mess, patches of it missing, strands of hair stuck to her fingers indicating she pulled them out in her grieving ”It is you who he died because of! You killed my baby! You are the reason!!” she screams again, getting closer, and Burt notices in horror as her mouth becomes larger and larger, until with a final scream her jaw unhinges so much that she lurches forward and swallows him whole, and he’s falling.

Until he hits his head with a thud on the floor. Wind knocked out of him, Burt curls up holding his head as pain makes it impossible to open his eyes. When he gets up, he staggers into the bathroom, shivering, but still washes his face with cold water. He looks in the mirror, and rubs his face, letting out quiet sobs. It was just a dream! Thank whatever higher being is there, that it was just a dream!! None of it is real!!

He pulls out a tissue from its box and blows his nose into it after wiping the tears off his face. He hears a soft noise from the bedroom, and after throwing the dirty tissue into the trashcan he opens the bathroom door and leans against the door frame for support. His eyes are almost completely used to the darkness by now, and he lovingly gazes at the figure curled up on the bed, hoarding all the blankets.

_”That explains why I felt so cold.”_ he thinks to himself, tears still dripping down his cheeks, but a smile tugging at his lips. Legs still shaking, Burt makes his way back to the bed, and gently tries to pry away at least one blanket from Matteus. The attempts at taking away a blanket were fruitless, and he accidentally wakes the sleeping guard up, who curls up more with a whine, mumbling how he doesn’t want to wake up yet.

”Love, you’ve taken all the blankets. I’m freezing. You’ll have a popsicle instead of a husband. You want that?” Burt wishpers, not daring to speak louder, so it wouldn’t be noticable if his voice shakes. Matteus looks up at him, Burt can see his sleepy eyes searching in the dark, and then with a huff and a sigh, he sits up.

”Take.”

”Thank you, love.” Burt places a small kiss on Matteus’s mouth, the latter one making a little noise akin to purring, a happy, but very sleepy smile on his face.

”Time?”

”It’s just past 1AM, we can still sleep.” Burt answers, and his smile widens at the pleased sound Matteus makes. He lays down, after pulling away the blankets. ”Now, come here, my love.” he pulls the taller man down on top of himself, just to feel his warmth and feel him breathe. His husband complies, and lays on top of him, his head resting on Burt’s collarbone, and their legs tangling. The Toppat member places another small kiss on his husband, this time on a lovebite he gave him yesterday, and Matteus humms in appreciation.

The lanky prison guard almost falls back into his deep slumber, when he starts hearing sniffling above his head, and his hair feels damp. He wants to bolt up, to see why his husband is crying all of a sudden, sleep wanishing and worry taking over its place. But the arms wrapped affectionetly, but protectively around him stop him even before his head could pull away from the body under him.

”What is wrong?? Burt?? Dear, why are you crying??” Matteus tries to get up again, and a hand finds its way into his hair, to soothe him with gentle strokes, and Burt’s trembling voice comes from above him.

”Hush, it’s okay, my love. Don’t worry.”

”Then why are you crying?? Tell me!”

”Because I love you so much.” his husband gives him another soft peck, this time on his forehead, just below his hairline, making his heart flutter, his face heat up, and his stomach do a backflip. ”And I am happy that you’re here with me.”

”I…I love you, too.” Matteus stutters, feeling embarassed in a weirdly wonderful way. ”And I too am” he shifts a little, so he could turn his head up, to look Burt in the eyes as best as he could, ”happy that you’re here with me.” he can just barely see his husbands smile, which eases the worry out of him completely.

”Let’s go back to sleep, love. Then make breakfast together in the morning. Sounds good?” the Toppat member asks before a yawn, his nose snuggled into Matteus’s messy hair.

”Sounds great, dear.” Matteus too yawns, shifting ever so slightly to get more comfortable. His husband falls asleep to the warmth, and he falls asleep to Burt’s heartbeat. And even if just for a few hours, everything is great.

**Author's Note:**

> Figured out how to post, lol. Also, I was listening to the Can Can played by an army of kazoos on repeat. I’ve been listening to it for a whole day. The kazoos are talking to me. My sanity is slipping. Well, at least Charles won’t be the only insane one here, lol.
> 
> *the author cannot hear you, he's too drunk*
> 
> *the author fucking died*
> 
> *just kidding, the author is fine and they can hear you*  
> Comments are appreciated! Also tell me if I missed anything in the tags.  
> EDIT: fixing some grammatical errors. Tell me if I missed any!


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